CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 2 Atty. John Titus J.

Vistal, CPA, EnP

Lecture 04 Discussion Guide

ARTICLE VI. THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

The Legislative Power

 Defined: The power to propose, enact, amend and repeal laws.
 Where vested: Vested in Congress, except to the extent reserved to the people by provision on
initiative and referendum
 Sec. 32, Art. VI: calls for a system of initiative and referendum, whereby the people can directly
propose and enact laws or approve or reject any act of law or part thereof, after the registration of a
petition therefor signed by at least 10% of the total number of registered voters (12% for
Constitutional amendments), of which every legislative district must be represented by at least 3%
of the registered voters thereof (also refer to R.A. 6735, The Initiative and Referendum Act).
 3 systems of initiative:
i. Initiative on the Constitution
ii. Initiative on statutes
iii. Initiative on local legislation – regional, provincial, city, municipal or barangay law,
resolution or ordinance
 Prohibited measures: no petition embracing more than one subject; statutes involving emergency
measures cannot be subject to referendum until 90 days after their effectivity.
 Local initiative, limitations

Congress
 Composition: a Senate and a House of Representatives
 Senate (Art. VI, Secs. 2-4)
 Composition: 24 senators elected at large
 Qualifications:
1. Natural-born citizen
2. At least 35 years old on the day of the election
3. Able to read and write
4. A registered voter
5. Resident of the Philippines for at least 2 years immediately preceding the day of the election
 Term of Office: 6 years, commencing at noon on the 30th day of June next following their
election
 Term Limits: only up to 2 consecutive terms. However, they may serve for more than 2 terms
provided that the terms are not consecutive.
 House of Representatives (Art. VI, Secs. 5-8)
 Composition: Not more than 250 members, unless otherwise provided by law, consisting of:
1. District Representatives
 elected from legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metro
Manila area.
 Rules on Apportionment of Legislative Districts:
1. proportional representation based on number of inhabitants
 Each city with a population of at least 250,000, or each province, shall have at
least 1 representative. Each province, irrespective of the number of inhabitants,
shall have at least 1 representative.
 Each legislative district shall comprise, as far as practicable, contiguous,
compact, and adjacent territory.
2. re-apportionment by Congress within 3 years after the return of each census
2. Party-List Representatives
 20% of the total number of representatives
 chosen indirectly through a party selected by voters
 RA 7941 (The Party-List System Act)
 Parties, organizations, and coalitions must obtain at least 2% of all votes cast to
obtain a party-list seat
 Those garnering more than 2% are entitled to additional seats in proportion to
their total number of votes, but may not have more than 3 seats

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  Disqualified:
1. religious sects
2. foreign organizations
3. those advocating violence or unlawful means
 Qualified Sectors:
1. labor
2. peasant
3. fisherfolk
4. urban poor
5. indigenous cultural communities
6. elderly
7. handicapped
8. women
9. youth
10. veterans
11. overseas workers
12. professionals
 In the Party-list System:
1. The parties must represent the marginalized and underrepresented.
Update: in Atong Paglaum, Inc., et al v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 203766 (ug daghan pa
kaayong G.R. Nos.), the Supreme Court said: “To require all national and regional
parties under the party-list system to represent the ‘marginalized and
underrepresented’ is to deprive and exclude, by judicial fiat, ideology-based and
cause-oriented parties from the party-list system. How will these ideology-based
and cause-oriented parties, who cannot win in legislative district elections,
participate in the electoral process if they are excluded from the party-list system?
To exclude them from the partylist system is to prevent them from joining the
parliamentary struggle, leaving as their only option the armed struggle. To exclude
them from the party-list system is, apart from being obviously senseless, patently
contrary to the clear intent and express wording of the 1987 Constitution and R.A.
No. 7941.”
2. Major political parties must comply with this statutory policy.
3. Religious sects are prohibited by the Constitution.
4. The party must not be disqualified under RA 7941 (the Party-List System Act).
5. The party must not be an adjunct of an entity or project funded by the government.
6. The party and its nominees must comply with the requirements of the law.
7. The members must come from the marginalized and underrepresented sectors.
8. The nominee must be able to contribute to the formulation and enactment of
appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation.
9. Their nominees must come from the same party. (Ang Bagong Bayani v. COMELEC,
G.R. No. 147589, June 26, 2001)
3. Sectoral Representatives
 For 3 consecutive terms from 2 February 1987, 25 seats shall be allotted to sectoral
representatives.
 To be chosen by appointment or election, as may be provided by law.
 Until a law is passed, they are appointed by the President from a list of nominees by the
respective sectors. (Art. XVIII, sec. 7)
 Qualifications of Representatives:
1. Natural-born citizens
2. At least 25 years old on the day of the election
3. Able to read and write
4. Registered voter in the district he seeks to represent
5. A resident of the said district for at least 1 year immediately preceding the day of
the election
 Term of Office: 3 years, commencing at noon on the 30th day of June next following their
election.
 Dimaporo v. Mitra (G.R. No. 96859, October 15, 1991): In B.P. Blg. 881, members of the legislature
included in the enumeration of elective public officials are to be considered resigned from office
from the moment of the filing of their certificates of candidacy for another office, except for

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 President and Vice-President. The term of office prescribed by the Constitution may not be
extended or shortened by the legislature, but the period during which an officer actually holds the
office (tenure) may be affected by circumstances within or beyond the power of said officer. Tenure
may be shorter than the term or it may not exist at all. These situations will not change the duration
of the term of office.
 Term Limits: No member of the House of Representatives shall serve for more than 3 consecutive
terms.
 Synchronized terms of office (Secs 1-2, Art XVIII)
 The first elections of Members of the Congress under this Constitution shall be held on the
second Monday of May, 1987.
 The first local elections shall be held on a date to be determined by the President, which may be
simultaneous with the election of the Members of the Congress.
 It shall include the election of all Members of the city or municipal councils in the Metropolitan
Manila area.
 The Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, and the local officials first elected
under this Constitution shall serve until noon of June 30, 1992.
 Of the Senators elected in the elections in 1992, the first twelve obtaining the highest number of
votes shall serve for six years and the remaining twelve for three years.
 Freedom from arrest
 A Senator or Member of the House of Representatives shall, in all offenses punishable by not
more than six years imprisonment, be privileged from arrest while the Congress is in session.
 No Member shall be questioned nor be held liable in any other place for any speech or debate in
the Congress or in any committee thereof.

Relevant Cases
 Ligot v. Mathay (G.R. No. L-34676, April 30, 1974): While it is Congress, thru a salary law, that
possess the authority to determine the salary of each member, the Constitution prohibits any
increase in said compensation to take effect until after the expiration of the full term of all the
members of the two houses approving such increase.
 Mariano v. COMELEC (G.R. No. 118577, March 7, 1995): The SC held that the Constitution does not
preclude Congress from increasing its membership by passing a law other than a general
apportionment law. In fact, in Tobias v. Abalos (239 SCRA 106), it ruled that reapportionment of
legislative districts may be made through a special law. To hold that reapportionment can be made
only through a general law would create an inequitable situation where a new city or province
created by Congress will be denied legislative representation for an indeterminate period of time.
 (Domicile vs. Residence) Marcos v. COMELEC (248 SCRA 300): The SC upheld the qualification of
Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos (IRM), despite her own declaration in her certificate of candidacy
that she had resided in the district for only seven months, because of the following:
i. A minor follows the domicile of his/her parents; Tacloban became IRM’s domicile of origin by
operation of law when her father brought the family to Leyte.
ii. Domicile of origin is lost only when there is actual removal or change of domicile, a bona fide
intention of abandoning the former residence and establishing a new one, and acts which
correspond with the purpose; in the absence of clear and positive proof of the concurrence of
all these, the domicile of origin should be deemed to continue.
iii. The wife does not automatically gain the husband’s domicile because the term “residence” in
Civil Law does not mean the same thing in Political Law; when IRM married Marcos in 1954, she
kept her domicile of origin and merely gained a new home, not a domicilium necessarium (a
domicile established by legal presumption).
iv. Even assuming that she gained a new domicile after her marriage and acquired the right to
choose a new one only after her husband died, her acts following her return to the country
clearly indicate that she chose Tacloban, her domicile of origin, as her domicile of choice.
 Coquilla v. COMELEC (G.R. No. 151914, July 31, 2002): The SC ruled that the petitioner had not been
a resident of Oras, Eastern Samar, for at least one year prior to the May 14, 2001 elections.
Although Oras was his domicile of origin, petitioner lost the same when he became a US citizen after
enlisting in the US Navy.